Columbus North’s Lily Retz, left, makes a catch at first base for an out against Columbus East’s Lola Watkins in a softball game at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Monday, April 21, 2025.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
For the first five innings of Monday’s crosstown clash, Columbus East held Columbus North to one run on four hits.
Then, the floodgates opened for the Bull Dogs.
North sent 17 batters to the plate in the top of the sixth, scoring 11 runs on 12 hits to rally for a 12-4 softball victory.
“We’ve been playing those kind of games all year,” North coach TJ Jarvis said. “That’s why we play the schedule we play, to get into that pressure cooker. That way, we never feel like we’re out of a softball game. We’ve had a lot of one-run games this year, so we know that feeling.”
The Bull Dogs (4-4) pounded out 17 hits, including three home runs. All nine starters in the North lineup recorded at least one hit.
Only three of those hits came off Olympian starter Baleigh Fish. Leading 3-1, East coach Rusty Brummett sent Fish to first base as a precaution with one out in the fourth and brought in shortstop Jacque Boroughs to pitch.
Boroughs got out of that inning, but then ran into trouble in the fifth. After Lily Retz give the Bull Dogs the lead with a one-out single, North delivered seven consecutive hits with two out to stretch the lead to 11-3. Payton Morris, who led off the inning with a single, hit a two-run homer to straightaway center, and Retz hit a three-run blast to left-center on her second at-bat of the inning.
“I knew I had runners on base that I had to get in so we could get the lead or at least tie it up,” Retz said of her initial at bat in the inning. “I feel like it showed the hard work we’ve been putting in at practices.”
Bailee Scruggs, who had put the Bull Dogs on the board with a solo homer in the fourth, pitched a five-hitter. She struck out six and walked one.
“That’s not just me, that’s my defense,” Scruggs said. “There’s a lot of runs that would have got in if my defense didn’t do it’s job. I gave up some runs, and they had my back. They came back, and they fought.”
The Olympians (4-3) had taken a 2-0 lead in the third on a groundout and then an RBI-double by Fish. They led 3-1 after five following a double by Lola Watkins, a groundout and a wild pitch.
“We played five really good innings of softball, and then once we figure out the other two innings, we’ll be all right,” East coach Rusty Brummett said. “We competed for five innings, and we had one bad inning out of seven. We just have to figure out how to fix that.”
Watkins went 2 for 4 to lead the Olympian offense and threw a runner out at the plate trying to score from second on a single to center field.
Morris went 3 for 4 with a home run and two RBIs, Ali Wooten went 3 for 4 and Retz went 2 for 4 with a homer and four RBIs to lead North at the plate. Miley McClellan went 2 for 2, Summer Williams went 2 for 4 with a double and three RBIs and Scruggs went 2 for 4 with a double.
“We had to make a change a little bit earlier pitching than we had anticipated,” Brummett said. “We have five more games this week, so longevity of the young ladies is probably the most important thing right now. I thought Jacque came in and threw pretty good, and then they started timing her up and put some people on. They hit the ball well. They had a few get-through places in the infield, and ours just didn’t get there today.”
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